How draining was tax season this year for me? Not only did it
empty my wallet, but it took almost all my energy to listen to
anything this week. Hell, I didn't even feel like running possibly
the most hated review we've ever featured on these pages - my
basting of Yes's
Tales From Topographic Oceans. (Too bad we already reviewed
Revolver by The Beatles; I could have had a field day with
the song "Taxman".)

Needing a serious pick-me-up, I turned to the halls of the
Pierce Memorial Archives to find an old standby that had never
failed to improve my mood. Enter, stage right, Rush with their 1977
release
A Farewell To Kings. I first discovered this album when I
was getting into Geddy Lee and crew in high school. I picked it up
mainly because it was (I think) $4.99, but this album quickly won
me over. Today, it still ranks among Rush's best work.

At first glance, one could say that this album is both sparse
(only six songs make it up, and the album clocks in at just over 37
minutes) and overblown (three of the tracks seem to be production
pieces). Granted, it's a short album - but it is a step down from
the "production" that was
2112. If anything,
A Farewell To Kings is
ambitious, but not in a snobbish way.

From Alex Lifeson's opening classical lines of "A Farewell To
Kings" to the blast of the full band, Rush almost constantly click
on all cylinders on this album. Lee's vocals still bordered on
banshee wailing at times, but he continued a pattern of moving
towards more middle-of-the-road vocal lines. Lifeson's guitar lines
flow quite well throughout this album, while Neal Peart begins to
show the expansive knowledge of percussion that he has. The opening
portion of "Xanadu" shows this, with Peart performing on everything
from tubular bells to temple blocks.

"A Farewell To Kings" and "Xanadu" take up the whole first half
of the album, but they are tracks that set the mood for the whole
album and remain some of Rush's best (if underappreciated) material
ever. Simply put, these songs blow me away every time I hear
them.

A Farewell To Kings will always be remembered for the song
"Closer To The Heart," which is rightfully considered a classic of
the Rush discography. Again building up the musical layers of the
song (starting with guitar to bells, bass to drums and
synthesizers, crescendoing with the full band kicking the song into
overdrive), Rush achieves musical nirvana on this song. (I'll
always remember this track as being one of the few guitar solos I
could actually play almost note-for-note.)

Of the remaining three tracks, "Cinderella Man" and "Madrigal"
both have strong moments, and are still pleasurable to listen to
(even if they're not quite as strong as their neighbors). The only
negative - and I use this word loosely here - track is "Cygnus
X-1," which builds on the space theme from
2112 and creates its own monstrosity. Had this track been
pared back a bit, it would have been a little better - this is the
only example I found where Rush gets too ambitious.

A Farewell To Kings could well be the sleeper in Rush's vast
catalog - falling in between the groundbreaking
2112 and the disappointment of
Hemispheres (that's another review for another day), it
tends to be forgotten until people really start getting serious
about this band. If anything, I'd like to consider this album a
treasure chest waiting to be discovered by new legions of fans.
It's well worth the investment.